Te’o Maintains Innocence in Hoax

Manti Te’o told ESPN on Friday that he was not part of a girlfriend hoax, but he did acknowledge tailoring his stories to lead people to believe that he had met her in person before her supposed death.

It was the first time that Te’o, Notre Dame’s all-American linebacker, expanded on his side of a story that has gripped the country in recent days.

During a dominant season, in which he led Notre Dame to the Bowl Championship Series title game, the often-retold story was that Te’o was inspired by playing through the pain of the early-season deaths of his girlfriend and his grandmother. On Wednesday, the Web site Deadspin broke the news that the girlfriend had never really existed.

He said he did not make up the story of a girlfriend who had died to bolster his chances of winning the Heisman Trophy. (He finished second to Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel.)

When people “hear the facts, they’ll know,” he told ESPN. “They’ll know that there is no way that I could be part of this.”

ESPN said Te’o was interviewed for two and a half hours while at the IMG Training Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where he is preparing for the N.F.L. draft.

Te’o told ESPN that he had embellished the story of the relationship at times because it would have been too embarrassing for people to know that he had not met her before her death. That apparently included lying to his father, who shared stories with reporters about their meetings.

He said the relationship began on Facebook. He said that he tried to video chat with her through Skype and FaceTime, but that it did not work out.

Notre Dame has said Te’o learned on Dec. 6 that things may not have been what they seemed. He told ESPN that a person said to be behind the hoax reached out to him to apologize two days ago through Twitter.

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Before Friday, Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o had remained silent since Wednesday, when he said he was the target of "someone’s sick joke."CreditWinslow Townson/Associated Press

Notre Dame, which has stood by Te’o in the aftermath of revelations about the hoax, pushed him to go public and tell his story, Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick has said. In a podcast released Friday, Swarbrick said he did not fault those who did not believe Te’o or the university’s account of events surrounding the hoax. Swarbrick said he understood that those doubts would not be eased until Te’o came forward. He said, “Skepticism was easy to understand.”

Swarbrick said that because of their silence, Te’o and his family had “lost the opportunity to, in some ways, control the story.”

Before Friday’s interview, Te’o’s only statement had been on Wednesday evening, when he said he was the target of “what was apparently someone’s sick joke and constant lies,” calling it “painful and humiliating.”

The same night, Swarbrick held a news conference, saying that even after an investigation, he still had full faith in Te’o.

But through Thursday and much of Friday, Te’o remained silent, even as new allegations about his story swirled, including a tale of confession from the supposed mastermind.

On Friday morning, ESPN reported that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo called a friend from church in early December and admitted to being behind a plan to trick Te’o into believing he was in a relationship with a girl who had died, according to the friend, who was identified only as a woman in her 20s.

As details trickled out after Deadspin broke the story of the hoax, Swarbrick said he had continued to stand by Te’o, who reported the situation to the university Dec. 26.

“Everything I have access to right now does nothing to shake my belief in Manti,” Swarbrick said in the podcast, adding that he was “overwhelmed with the cruelty of this.”

He continued, “There is just a core cruelty here, which is just very sad for me, and a terrible statement about where we are today and how social media is a tool in some really bad stuff.”

Swarbrick said Te’o and his family had initially planned to come out with the story on their own next week. “Sometimes the best-laid plans don’t quite work,” he said.

Te’o’s mother, Ottilia, answered the door at the family’s home in Laie, Hawaii, and said, “We’re not talking at this time.” She added that the family had not determined if it would make a statement.

Correction:Jan. 19, 2013

An earlier version of this article misspelled the last name of the man said to be behind the hoax. He is Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, not Ronaiah Tuisasosopo.

Michelle Broder Van Dyke contributed reporting from Laie, Hawaii.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section D, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Te’o Maintains Innocence in Hoax. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe